Where have all the adders gone?

[Acerforestry]

1 hour ago, TIMON said:

I’m going to work in South Africa, out in the sticks for couple of weeks, I really don’t mind if I don’t see ANY... I know there’s no shortage of them out there.

We were driving through a rural town on the wine route the last time we were in SA, and went straight over (not intentionally) what was apparently (I described it later to an expert) a Cape cobra. I'm normally pretty inquisitive about wildlife, but that was one time it was wise to not get out of the 4x4

[TIMON]

In South Africa I would be more worried by the black mamba it likes to climb trees and is fast

I think Mambas and Cobras will avoid human contact, but obviously will strike if they feel threatened, apparently the mamba strikes repeatedly (Gangsta!)
The vipers are much slower and don’t get out of the way quick enough which is why they account for most of the biting incidents.
Don’t fancy being around any kind.....

[dumper]

1 minute ago, TIMON said:

 

I think Mambas and Cobras will avoid human contact, but obviously will strike if they feel threatened, apparently the mamba strikes repeatedly (Gangsta!)
The vipers are much slower and don’t get out of the way quick enough which is why they account for most of the biting incidents.
Don’t fancy being around any kind.....

 

Have you seen the size of the puff adders hide in the debris under the trees and wait to be trodden  on

[Tilio-acerion]

13 hours ago, Paul in the woods said:

Interesting, and from Wiki "small vertebrates like lizards, field voles, small mammals, and small birds occasionally taken "

 

I asked because we have a few pheasants that have escaped the local shoots and settled in. They've even raised young and I've never really seen them eat anything the size of a snake or vole.

 

The magpies on the other hand...

 

Is there any research as to how many snakes and lizards released pheasants will eat?

 

I would have thought, down here at least, it would be the increase in buzzards etc that would impact the adder population more.

They see snakes as threats (an ecological inherent trait, as snakes are a real threat to them in their native Asia) so don’t necessarily just affect their populations through eating them, they often just attack them and peck them to drive them away. I’ve seen many adders with peck holes and eyes missing. 

Edited November 11, 2019 by Tilio-acerion

[Guest Gimlet]

15 hours ago, Acerforestry said:

We were driving through a rural town on the wine route the last time we were in SA, and went straight over (not intentionally) what was apparently (I described it later to an expert) a Cape cobra. I'm normally pretty inquisitive about wildlife, but that was one time it was wise to not get out of the 4x4

Twenty odd years ago, I spent a year travelling round Australia with the girlfriend. A few days into the trip we took on our first bush walk through the Blue Mountains in NSW. 

The first seven or so miles were along a well trodden but narrow path barely two feet wide through dense undergrowth with steep slopes on either side. 

I admit that at that point I hadn't fully acclimatised to Aussie ecology and I was bricking it. It was hot and we were wearing shorts. On either side foliage brushed your legs. Lizards scuttled, strange and massive invertebrates strafed your face, things slithered in the undergrowth unseen and I was generally convinced something hideously venomous would kill us before we'd gone a hundred yards.

 

In fact we managed about six miles. And then the dearly beloved stumbled and turned her ankle and couldn't walk any further. Luckily there was a sort of bothy/hut thing nearby and consulting the map we saw that if I went back and got the car I could drive round about twenty miles by road and drive virtually right up to the bothy by a dirt track and pick her up. So I left her and pegged it back to get the car. I ran the entire way (I've never run six miles non-stop in my life before or since. It was just adrenaline). I was scared shitless of leaving her on her own in the middle of nowhere in case some crazy found her so I just ran. Until about halfway back I was brought up short by a snake on the path. It was only about two feet long but it was lying right across the path with no way round on either side. I tried noise and stamping to get it to shift but it wouldn't budge. I kicked dust at it but it just stood its ground and bridled.

In the end I took a run up and jumped over it as high as I could. I identified it subsequently from a book in a library as a juvenile eastern brown, which is about as nasty as snakes get in Aus. Someone since told me that running away from an angry eastern brown is pointless because you just die tired. Bloody good job I didn't know that at the time..  

Edited November 11, 2019 by Gimlet

[Tilio-acerion]

9 hours ago, Tilio-acerion said:

They see snakes as threats (an ecological inherent trait, as snakes are a real threat to them in their native Asia) so don’t necessarily just affect their populations through eating them, they often just attack them and peck them to drive them away. I’ve seen many adders with peck holes and eyes missing. 

Not just my observations, here also “Adders do get attacked by other species: herons, corvids and large gulls will have a go at them, but surprisingly their biggest enemy is the pheasant, which seems to go out of its way to attack an adder if it sees one.“ 

Amazing adders - Minsmere - Minsmere - The RSPB Community

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Edited November 11, 2019 by Tilio-acerion

[Rough Hewn]

I don't think I've seen a grass snake for over 20 years. Anyone else see them regularly?

[Stubby]

23 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

I don't think I've seen a grass snake for over 20 years. Anyone else see them regularly?

Don't see them regularly but rescued one last summer . It was tangled up in some raspberry  cane netting .

Edited November 11, 2019 by Stubby

[Marc Lewis]

25 yrs ago we were clearing motorway embankments. Where m3 meets m27 and you get roadlocked islands, there were loads of adders. Really had to be quite carefull.

[Guest Gimlet]

3 minutes ago, Marc Lewis said:

25 yrs ago we were clearing motorway embankments. Where m3 meets m27 and you get roadlocked islands, there were loads of adders. Really had to be quite carefull.

And presumably, because of the traffic, no pheasants, corvids or raptors..